Earlier this week...

Earlier this week, Katie's Awana club had Crazy Hair Night. Awana is a Christian club at our church; this was their alternative to costumes and such. Her leader suggested last week that we color her hair using Kool Aid, so I gave it a try. I used 4 pkgs, with just a tiny bit of water in a dixie cup and applied it using a pastry brush. It made a mess, but luckily Kool Aid is washable! We also used the silver hair coloring to put a stripe in the front, just like we did for the pop star hair. Then we curled it as much as possible (boy, her hair just doesn't want to hold any kind of curl!) and sprayed glitter all over. Pretty crazy! The girl next to her won the contest, but Katie was runner up. I was surprised that almost all the girls had crazy hair - most of them just did crazy hairdo's, not coloring and stuff. It was really cool to see so much participation.

Happy Halloween!

Ok, I know it's been a long time since I posted; ever since I got on facebook, I've been addicted and my blog has suffered.

Last week Chuck carved out our pumpkins; he loves to do this because he sorts out all the seeds and roasts them in the oven. He and Danny love to eat them! Danny and Katie draw out designs on paper, and C does the actual carving.

Here are the finished products:


Danny's is supposed to be Kirby, but I didn't have orange construction paper for the hands and feet, and Dad got too tired to carve out the cheekies. I like Katie's too, with the fangs and the little pac man eyes.

Here are pics of Danny (Indiana Jones again this year) and Katie is a pop star (note: she is NOT Hannah Montana!):






















She hated getting her hair done up, but she loved the makeup! Here is a close-up:


Those are actually sunglasses on top of her head; she had seen some at the costume store but they were $8! So I got a plain pair at the dollar store and some pre-glittered felt at the craft store, and made my own for less than $2. Oh, yeah! The shoes aren't exactly glamourous, but they made it easier to make it through 2 hrs of trick-or-treating!

This year, Danny went out with a friend in their neighborhood, while Katie went out with her 2 best friends here. I had a great time, because the moms and I gabbed the whole time and I hardly noticed how long we were out. The girls also had a great time!

Katie had a great haul, and as my due I got all her peanut butter cups : ) Danny isn't back yet with his Dad, but I'll bet he did well too!

Personally, I am so glad this holiday is OVER! It really isn't one of my favorites.

What do you mean you've never heard of an ATLATL?

A few weekends ago, I signed up the kids for another park adventure; this one was called the Woodland Indian Experience. It was at the county park closest to my house, which I liked : ) Danny and Katie were supposed to both go, but D of course had some other thing he had to be at. Anyway, Katie and I went, and there was one other mom with her son, who I think was a 2nd grader. The park guide took us for a hike along the paths through the woods and explained the history of the parks and what kinds of archaeological digs had occurred there, and the Native Americans known to have lived in the area thousands of years ago. That part was interesting, and since there were only the 4 of us Katie got to do all of her babbling she usually does without annoying too many people. When we got back to the park area, we got to try out atlatls. What, you've never heard of them??? Pronounced "AT-LAttle", they are "weapons" developed to improve their spear-throwing. They were invented before the bow and arrow, sometime around the time they were hunting big game like mastodons and wooly mammoths. They are pieces of wood with a strap on one end and a hook carved into the other end, which you set the spear onto and use as leverage to throw the spear harder and straighter. Here is a picture of the park guide showing the kids how to set up:










And here is one of Katie's better throws:









As you can see on the ground, it's a little harder than it looks! We 2 moms both tried a few times, but the kids kept at it for a while - until Katie's arm got tired. The boy kept on going and going, until finally he did hit the target! The other mom and I agreed that our older sons would have loved this program, and that we would sign up again in the spring if they offer it again.

Katie's Weekend

While Dad was hunting and Dan was riding roller coasters, Katie got to spend the day at her Grandma and Grandpa's. She had plenty of fun there!

The weekend before, she got to march in our local city pride festival parade. If you remember, last year she marched as a cheerleader, but this year she marched with the Girl Scouts. Instead of wearing their sashes, which are pretty plain so far having just moved up from Brownies last spring, they all wore the t-shirts they earned from cookie sales last year.


The one girl in the cheer uniform is also in GS; she decided at the last minute to march with her troop instead, b/c no one else in her cheer squad was in the parade. The day started out pretty chilly, but warmed up quickly, and by the time K marched past me she was pretty hot (hence the rolled up pant legs!). I thought she would be toward the beginning of the parade, being in section B4, but that ended up being closer to the end so she didn't get to see much of the parade herself this year.

I did take Archie with me, but I didn't take any pictures of him. Here is an interesting fact - normally, here in our area, people love to attend parades b/c they throw out candy to the kids. Well, if you have a dog, there are plenty of people who bring dog biscuits, too! I had my little baggie of training treats with me, and we definitely went home with more than I brought!

I sat with my best friend Michelle, whose son was also marching. We really enjoyed ourselves; we got the perfect spot - close to the end of the parade route, under the shade of some trees and close to a bathroom!

Here is a picture of her son, Ian (in the white t-shirt):


He marched with the combined middle school orchestras. This was new this year, I'm not sure whose idea it was. The orchestras are separate from the bands and basically consist of the strings. Violins and violas marched, while the cellos and bass fiddles got to ride on a trailer. I guess someone thought it was unfair that the bands got to show off and not the strings, so they put the orchestras in the parade too. They went back and forth between 2 songs, Battle Cry for Freedom (a Civil War song anyone who has watched PBS would recognize) and another one. I'm sure they were plenty sick of both by the end of the parade! Ian did a great job.

Deer Season

Last weekend was the opening day of bow hunting season here. Naturally, as I have referred to in another post, DH is totally psyched. Danny wasn't able to go out with him b/c that was his youth group trip to the amusement park (also referenced in a prior post), but DH spent a lovely Saturday up in a tree. Here he is all decked out:

(Can you see him? He's standing there just in front of the tree, lol!)

He said that it was pretty quiet all day, although there were about 10 hunters all out in the same area (!). At around dusk, when the deer tend to come out and forage for food, he said there were 4 yahoos on atvs joy-riding through the area. Gah! No chance of deer with that going on. But even so, he always appreciates being outside with nothing pressing to think about.

This coming Sat., he and D are both going out. Here is a picture of D practicing in the back yard with his cross bow:

And here is his shot:

Bullseye!

I wonder how long D will be in his blind before he gets bored.